FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The U.S. Open doesn’t do sentimentality.
In 2006, playing in his first tournament since his father, Earl, died, Tiger Woods came to Winged Foot the sentimental favorite. He shot 76-76 and missed his first Open cut since turning pro.
In 1955 Ben Hogan, at age 42 and with creaky knees, looked as if he had sealed a record fifth Open, but Jack Fleck, an assistant driving range pro from Iowa, birdied the Olympic Club’s tricky final hole to force a playoff, which Hogan lost.
Sam Snead, who won a still-record 82 tournaments, never won a U.S. Open, finishing second four times, each near-miss more heartbreaking than the previous.
Phil Mickelson would have been the gallery favorite for the 109th U.S. Open, which beings this morning at Bethpage Black, even if his personal life hadn’t taken a cruel turn last month when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.
But that circumstance, along with Mickelson’s four runner-up finishes in the major he most wants to win, make him the off-the-chart favorite this year.
“It’s going to be — it’s going to be loud,” Woods said of the expected crowd response to Mickelson.
“It could be that that support helps carry me through emotionally when I’m on the course,” Mickelson said Wednesday morning before his first practice round this week. “I’m certainly hoping for that.”
But Mickelson, by his own admission, has done little preparation, usually a must for the Open, known for brutal course conditions no matter the site.
“To me the U.S. Open was always the toughest test in golf,” said Paul Casey, the world’s No. 3 ranked player, behind Woods and Mickelson. “To me, it was always you went in there with the attitude knowing it was going to be tough, maybe horrible. But that’s what you were prepared for.”
Woods wasn’t mentally prepared for it at Winged Foot and missed the cut. As great a story as Mickelson contending this week would be, the history of this event suggests it’s unlikely.
But not impossible.
Besides Mickelson and Woods, who is looking for his 15th major and fourth Open, the other primary story lines for this U.S. Open are interrelated — the weather and the course. The Black has been extended to 7,438 yards from the 7,214 it played in 2002, though Jim Hy-ler, chairman of the championship committee for the USGA, said it would not play at that length any day this week.
That is part of the kinder approach of Mike Davis, the USGA’s senior director of rules and competitions who took over course set-up duties for Tom Meeks in 2006. Meeks often pushed an Open course to the edge and sometimes over such as Shinnecock Hills in 2004, but Davis has a different methodology, starting with graduated rough. Graduated means the rough gets deeper the farther off the fairway you go.
But regardless of where players hit it, they’re likely to be in wet grass.
Because of the inordinate amount of rain that has fallen the last 1 1/2 months, Bethpage will play longer, though, with the combination of graduated rough, shaven areas around the greens that were thick and heavy in 2002 and, most important, moist greens that will hold shots off long irons, scores are likely to be low. How low is the question, and players have steered clear of red-number (under par) talk.
“This is probably the most difficult golf course we’ve faced from tee to green,” Woods said.
